Our Team

Adrian Hon

CEO and Founder

Since 2007, Adrian has overseen the creation of all of Six to Start’s main projects, including Zombies, Run!, We Tell Stories, and Smokescreen, and its research and development projects with clients including Disney Imagineering, the British Museum, and Microsoft. Adrian is also responsible for new concept and product development at Six to Start across a range of media including smartphones and the web.

Adrian is one of the world’s leading online and alternate reality game designers, having been influential in the genre since its birth. Previously, Adrian was Director of Play at Mind Candy, where he designed and produced the Perplex City ARG. Some of the venues at which Adrian has spoken include TED, Google, GDC, Nordic Game and the Montreal Games Summit.

Adrian previously studied neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and the University of California at San Diego. Adrian is the author of A History of the Future in 100 Objects and has written about technology for The Telegraph.

Matt Wieteska

Producer and Audio Director

Matt joined Six to Start in 2009, starting as an intern on their award-winning project Smokescreen. Currently, he works primarily on Zombies, Run!, for which he directs and manages the game's audio content, along with writing the popular "Radio Abel" segments of the game. Previously, he was the lead designer for The Code, produced by Six to Start for the BBC in 2011, and for the Enigma Challenge, produced by for Wired UK in 2010.

Prior to joining Six to Start, Matt studied English Literature and Classics at the University of Edinburgh, with a focus on the development of theatre and on gender theory. During his time at Edinburgh, Matt was an active member of the Edinburgh University Theatre Company, managing its Bedlam Theatre for the Fringe Festival in 2007 and directing eleven successful plays, alongside having four of his original scripts produced as part of the company's regular output.

An avid player of both Poker and Android: Netrunner, Matt wishes he was better at both, but will never refuse a game of either. Writing his dissertation on Philip K. Dick has ensured he never quite believes what is happening to him, which is probably a good thing.

Lou Atherton

Customer Support and QA

Lou started at Six to Start in 2013 answering support queries, but now also does QA and hops onto production sometimes. Any puns found in the summaries for later Zombies, Run! seasons are almost certainly Lou’s fault!

Originally training as a teacher, Lou decided to follow her heart instead and pursue a career in media. She started out as a runner in a sound recording studio working mainly on video games (and is even in one as some baby fairies!) before moving on to Six to Start.

When not doing something vaguely nerdy Lou likes to read and write stories, sing in choirs and try to copy recipes off Bake Off with varying success.

Alex Benini

iOS Developer

Alex has been in mobile development since 2008. He worked on many different platforms and technologies before he landed on iOS. In a moment of inspiration, he decided to found a company specialised in mobile apps. After years of work in such a vastly different role he decided to get back to basics as a software engineer and embarked on a new adventure in the UK which brought him to Six to Start (though secretly he still prefers the Italian sun).

Claire Knight

Lead Developer

Claire is a seasoned developer having worked in the software industry since getting her doctorate cough years ago. This experience has allowed her to cover a wide range of languages and business domains, so she can turn her hand to most things. Since the iPhone was launched, she seems to have had a strange fascination for mobile apps, and in particular the Apple ecosystem. There really is no helping some people ;)

Outside of coding she lifts heavy things, and after ten minutes, puts them down again. At least that is the plan. She is an English Long Cycle (Kettlebell Sport) team member and has represented the country overseas at amateur level. Winning medals in the process.

She works and trains with her cats in Berkshire (they mostly just look at her as if she is mad on all counts, or contribute random sentences into code) and regales her husband with accounts of them (the cats!) being daft in the evening.

Ranjani Natarajan

Production Assistant

Ranjani is one of our newest additions at Six to Start, having signed on first as an intern in 2016 and just forgotten to leave. She works on the boring-but-necessary bits of Production like scheduling and tracking recording but enjoys it as much as Matt. She also works on other creative things that require an organisational eye and helps out with Support/QA. This is a photo of her on a train where she spends a lot of her time lately.

In a past life, Ranjani worked in credit rating at CRISIL and NYSE/NASDAQ trading at Capstone Securities in India. She doesn't expect you to find the switch from credit to equity as funny as she does. She loves reading and playing adventure games (look, a three-headed monkey!) in her spare time.

Bartlomiej Niemtur

Full-Stack Developer

Bartek is a software developer with a focus on product. In the past he has worked as a front end developer, back end developer and has run his own business building popular iOS and Android apps.

Currently he is a full stack developer who designs, builds and oversees SixToStart's APIs and maintains front end websites. He approaches his daily tasks with optimism and a sprinkle of Behaviour Driven Development.

He likes learning new programming skills and has worked with scripting, compiled, functional and GPU programming languages. He also enjoys staying close to product design and working directly with the specification.

Bartek likes to play guitar, but never got as good as Brad. Fan of crime TV series, he managed to watch 13 seasons of Agatha Christie's Poirot. Enjoys hiking, travelling and video games.

Brad Porter

Mad Scientist

Brad produces the Zombies, Run! Virtual Races, is a graphic designer for Six to Start's apps and websites, and makes exquisite posts in the company Slack. Alongside his work at StS, he makes music for short films, games, and anyone who happens to be walking by.

Kascha Sweeney

Lead Artist

Kas Sweeney is a Sydney-based graphic designer and illustrator with over a decade in the industry. Since coming onboard as Six to Start’s Lead Artist in 2015, she has been responsible for producing artwork for the past few seasons of Zombies, Run!, as well as the ZR Virtual Races, board game, and comic book.

When she’s not working, she’s rewatching old Gnomon workshop tutorials, and when she’s not doing that, she’s trying to find the perfect cold brew recipe. She’s also just a really big fan of Six to Start’s games, and can attest to that with the sheer volume of Zombies, Run! fan art she’s produced over the past five years.

Sabrina Greenberg

Office Manager

Sabrina started at Six to Start in 2017 as our Office Manager.

Before Six to Start, Sabrina worked in architecture whilst studying a part time Masters in Contemporary History at Birkbeck. She spent two years in dusty medical libraries reading asylum patients records and drinking excessive amounts of coffee.

She enjoys Crossfit and writes about how important exercise is for your mental health.

Stephen Charman

Senior Android Developer

Stephen joined Six to Start in 2016 to continue the development of the existing Android apps and to build new ones. He has been working with Android since the venerable G1 was first released and has been shipping apps for work and pleasure ever since. Before that Stephen wrote software for web, desktop and mobile in C#.

Outside of work Stephen mostly spends his time dadding. When not doing that he scrapes time together to indulge in his hobbies of running, picking up heavy things and put them back down, playing video games, exploring VR, or watching StarCraft2 and American football.

Darek Ciesla

Senior iOS Developer

Darek is a programmer with over 10 years of experience. He is very focused on writing clean and readable code and is always eager to find the best solutions to resolve problems. In the early years of his career he worked as a web developer but since 2011, when Darek acquired his first iPhone, he dreamt of creating apps that he could carry in his pocket. That's how his main focus slowly change to creating apps for Apple devices.

Steven Veltema

Senior Android Developer

Working from Japan, Steven develops our Android apps and helps keep them in top form. Prior to joining Six to Start, he created an eclectic mix of iOS and Android apps, backend systems, and enterprise software over many years. When he’s not digging through code he can be found either at the dojo working up a zombie killing sweat, or in the Fablab he founded teaching and making electronic oddities.

Lulu Kadhim

QA and Production

Lulu started at Six to Start in 2016, and works on a variety of production and support related tasks for both Zombies, Run! and Racelink. Before StS, she studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Kingston University, where she fell in love with hyperreality and arguing about Roland Barthes.

She writes sci-fi short stories, reads less than she feels she ought to, and plays board games.

Tim Cooke

Chairman

Tim holds a portfolio of Non-Executive Chairmanships and Directorships and is currently Chairman of Six to Start Ltd and Clarinet Ltd. He is also a Non Executive Director of Harmonic, a defence consulting company, and a Venture Partner to NESTA. Tim has worked in senior levels in media, software, and IT services companies throughout his working life.

Tim has a Chemistry MA and DPhil from Oxford University and an MTech from Brunel University. He was an early employee with Logica, where he held numerous senior management positions in the UK and overseas. He was later Managing Director of Oxford Molecular Group plc and floated this software based drug design and genomics company. He has also floated Intelligent Environments plc, the London stock market’s first internet company. Read more about Tim at his LinkedIn profile.

Jo Goodson

Non-executive Director

Jo has over 20 years’ experience in a range of media and software businesses both as an Executive and a Non-Executive Director.
In 1998 Jo co-founded Mediagold. The company had offices in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany and gave US software publishers access to the European market place. The UK company experienced high growth and solid profitability between 1998 and 2003 and the business was sold to French company Avanquest at the end of 2003. After leaving Avanquest, Jo continued to work with the Board on M&A projects and also worked as interim COO for Ariadne Capital.

Prior to MediaGold, Jo ran the European Sales Division for the highly successful US consumer publisher Broderbund. She was the second employee of the company and took it from start-up to £12million in revenue in two years. Previously, Jo was involved with a number of companies working with different emerging technologies and chaired the British Interactive Multimedia Association (BIMA). Read more about Jo at her LinkedIn profile.

Lisa Long

Non-executive Director

Lisa was part of the founding team of Six to Start, and now serves as a non-executive director. She is now the VP of Innovation and Product Governance at Telenor, supporting innovation and product development across 12 markets ranging from the Nordics to Southeast Asia, and serves as an advisor to Basestone, a construction software company. She also mentors startup companies through Seedcamp, Mass Challenge, and Cartier Women's Initiative, where she coached 5 teams to victory. She has spoken at various conferences including Mind the Product, Product Management Festival, Qcon, and Agile Scotland.

Lisa has a degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from INSEAD. Prior to Six to Start, Lisa worked in various enterprise software companies in Silicon Valley and the UK in a variety of technical positions.

Join Us

We're always on the lookout for storytellers, developers and production staff who understand how to use new platforms in memorable ways. Visit our jobs page for current openings.